Korean studies

Korean was identified as one of the four key Asian languages in the 1987 Australian Government’s National Policy on Languages alongside Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian. South Korea is one of Australia’s largest trading partners and the relationship between the two countries is constantly developing and expanding in a number of sectors, including trade, education and tourism. This means that employment opportunities are increasing for graduates with knowledge and skills in Korean language, culture and society. Opportunities for graduates in Korean studies are diverse, including employment in fields such as trade, commerce, international relations, translation/interpreting, technology, government, education, tourism and community services.

Teaching Program

Korean studies has been taught at the University since 1988. Our teaching program is designed to provide a solid foundation in Korea-related fields and aims to help students acquire not only Korean language competency, but also other valuable skills, such as intercultural communication. We take pride in our innovative teaching, as well as our strong commitment to research.

Research

We welcome applications from prospective PhD students wishing to conduct research within the areas of expertise of our staff. The research strengths and supervision areas of the Korean studies staff are:

North and South Korean film

Korean popular culture – K Pop

Rebellion in Korea

Teaching Korean as a Foreign Language

Korean linguistics

Korean modern literature

Premodern and modern Korean history

Translation studies

Korean diaspora

Korea and international relations

Korean society and culture

Gender and state

Korean pragmatics, politeness and honorifics

Korean language maintenance in Australia

If you intend to work on a project that combines Korean studies and another discipline, we will organise the necessary complement of research expertise to meet your supervision needs.